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Lebanon defeats Carthage in Pink and White

Published by Alex on Wed, 12/27/2017 - 19:37

By:

ALEX BOYER (ALEX@LEBANONDAILYRECORD.COM)

SPRINGFIELD — The Lebanon girls’ basketball team rebounded from a first round loss at the Pink and White classic against the Skyline Tigers with a day two victory over the Carthage Tigers, 59-47 on Wednesday evening.

After a 16-12 Carthage lead at the end of the first quarter, the ‘Jackets responded nicely with a 12-6 run to start the quarter, due in large part to senior Carsyn Bowman who scored eight points in the quarter to help give LHS a a 25-22 lead heading into the half. Lebanon caused lots of havoc on the Tigers with their press that helped lead to easy baskets.

“In the second quarter I told Carsyn to go out there and work her tail off on defense and she was able to get a couple of turnovers immediately and did a nice job,” Lebanon head coach Brendan Kelley said. “I also thought Gracie Calhoun did an excellent job on defensively and rebounding. We had a lot of girls step up, but those are the two who are standing out in my mind right now.”

Kelley said he thought his team did a good job on the defensive side of the ball, especially on the pressure during the traps.

“I thought we did a nice job of fighting through screens and fronting their post players all night long,” Kelley said. “We did a good job of rotation and had some nice backside help for their tall girl that they had.

“When I watched Carthage, I knew I wanted to pressure all game long. We always want to trap the first pass once they get across half court … I thought we were able to bother them with that all game.”

Lebanon junior Abby O’ Connor stepped up nicely for the ‘Jackets and got things going in the second half for Lebanon, scoring the first six points and giving them a lead of 40-38 heading into the final quarter.

Kelley mentioned that he was proud of the way his team performed after a tough loss to Skyline in the opening round.

“Anytime you lose a basketball is tough, but anytime you lose a basketball game by a significant amount of points it takes its toll on you mentally,” Kelley said. “Sometimes you don’t know how big of a toll it is going to take on your team, but it shows a lot about our kids because they came to fight today and played really hard, especially on the defensive end.”

The ‘Jackets are slated to face Ozark tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. from Weiser Gymnasium at Drury University.

“I am pretty happy with our performance,” Kelley said about the win. “We have taken a couple of tough losses this season and our kids our used to winning, so it has been hard and we have had to make adjustments.

“Our potential is there and there are nights where we show up to play, but it is finding that consistency that we struggle with. I am hoping this win can catapult us into tomorrow against Ozark.”